What have we here, if you haven't heard of it?
Flesh and Blood is a "monster mash" comics series that seems to literally take place in the Hammerscape, that weird universe reflected in British horror films of the late fifties through the seventies (but you know that, right?) But these comics really do seem to inhabit Hammer acreage, stitched together with cords from vampire and horror literature.The story features:
- Baron Frankenstein-- the Peter Cushing version from Curse of Frankenstein, etc.
- Carmilla and Laura of the Karnstein Cycle
- A young Van Helsing who does not resemble Peter Cushing, or else that would get confusing
- Dracula
- Flying vampires a la Van Helsing, the movie
-- in a timeline that carefully tries to stitch all of these characters together. If you were to ask me, how long before Dracula does Carmilla take place, I'd say, oh, anywhere from thirty to fifty years. And could you use the characters in both stories together? Yes. Does the timeline matter? Yes, but most storytellers wouldn't care. The team, Robert Tinnell and Neil Vokes, cares: we get a young Van Helsing in the Carmilla period and an older Van Helsing in the Dracula period. I mean: wow.
Lurid, violent, crazily action-packed and literate about every piece of vampire and monster lore, this series is just maddeningly cool. Well done!
